The Justice for Shaftesbury campaign group has leafletted 4,000 homes in Shaftesbury in an attempt to counter what the group claims is the ‘biased propaganda’ put out by Shaftesbury Town Council about the parish poll on the future of the town’s cattle market on 9 August, writes Richard Thomas.
It is the latest skirmish in an increasingly bitter battle between campaigners trying to save the site for community development and both North Dorset District Council – which is trying to sell the 2.5-acre site to a supermarket chain believed to be Lidl for a reputed £2.5 million – and STC, whom campaigners claim is deliberately obstructing objections to the sale from local people but doing nothing itself.
Justice for Shaftesbury, led by former soldier Peter Yeo and former Shaftesbury mayor Lester Dibben, is angry that Shaftesbury’s town clerk has put up posters around town urging people to vote ‘No’ to the poll that demands the town council launch a judicial review in the High Court to force NDDC to halt the sale.
Signed by town clerk Claire Commons, the posters say that a ‘yes’ vote on 9 August is a waste of time because the town council is not obliged to act on the result and even if it did so the cost of going to court is prohibitive and would be unlikely to be successful.
The campaign group’s six-page ‘vote Yes’ flier not only condemns the council’s move as ‘biased propaganda’ but also includes letters it is asking people to sign and send to communities and local government minister James Brokenshire, North Dorset MP Simon Hoare, and chief executive of NDDC Matt Prosser demanding they intervene to halt the sale so that local people have a say in what happens to the site first.
The group, now joined by former town councillor Adrian Thompson and local cattle farmer John Pritchard, is also asking local residents to forward letters to Lidl’s chief executive Christian Hartnagel asking him to switch the company’s interest to either the former Budgens site in the town centre or to the vacant seven-acre employment site on the A30 opposite the new Persimmon estate in Shaftesbury.
Meanwhile a public call for the resignation of Shaftesbury’s mayor Councillor Piers Brown has come from local residents Dr Richard Skaife and his wife Brenda after the revelation that he seconded the motion to sell the freehold of the market site to a supermarket at a meeting of NDDC’s cabinet in April.
They join protesters who claim not only that Councillor Brown has a vested interest in the sale as a cabinet member of NDDC but also that he has been instrumental in obstructing the town council’s support for local people concerned about the sale of Dorset’s last livestock market.
Blandford district and county councillor Barrie Cooper has also now joined the fight after discovering that the decision on how and where the money from the sale of the cattle market site will be spent will be made by the new Dorset Council unitary authority based in Dorchester that takes over from NDDC in April.
‘The Conservative cabinet at NDDC has lost an opportunity for the receipts to be spent in North Dorset for the benefit of the residents,’ he told a full meeting of NDDC at the end of July. ‘We need councillors who look to improve and invest our money in North Dorset.’
Justice for Shaftesbury lodged its own action against the sale in the High Court on 23 July – the last day it could for a judicial review of a council decision made on 23 April – and has launched a crowdfunding appeal on the CrowdJustice website to help pay for it.
The group also tried to launch a petition on the UK Petitions to Parliament website asking for it to be made illegal for councils to sell public land in secret but was refused.
5 Comments
Please note that the petition on the UK Petitions to Parliament website asking for it to be made illegal for councils to sell public land in secret but was refused only because it was not specific enough.. ‘Justice For Shaftesbury’ might apply again soon with a more specific request. Pete Yeo – Justice For Shaftesbury
Dear Peter, I would very much like to be kept to date on proceedings about the sale of the cattle market in Shaftesbury. I did my best to canvas the people of my street prior to the poll. I fully support all that you are doing.
NDDC want to sell Shaftesbury livestock market. This is the only livestock market in Dorset. NDDC have NOT offered another site for a new market but are very happy to have 1.7 million in there bank account ( after paying Southern Counties Auctioneers out). That will pay for their golden hand shake in April 2019, when they will be jobless
Personally, i am delighted that the cattle market is going. As a Vegerarian and an animal lover, i am delighted that i will no longer have to hear the cries of calves after being forced away from their mothers. The only shame is that the farmers will now have to take their animals to Frome or somewhere, which is further away, hence a longer journey for the animals in hot conditions at this time of year. Something farmers don’t seem to care about.
Also, Shaftesbury is growing in size as the building of new homes goes on and on, and we need more jobs. Shame it’s going to be Lidl. There is already one in Warminster, Blandford and Gillingham. Would have preferred Aldi as they do a lot more organic food.
With out farmers there is no food, no countryside for tourists, no income for B&Bs. Vegans cause animals to be on lorries longer by their stupid protests. Where do you think all the animals are going to live if we stop killing them?